Pn 9”7Oy 099090 3 NINA DANIAN DASYA HV1DF DANS ANON VINNY 52 MYYT PN JIA. WIRY T9093 77) IN D9IDNDA DOTA JIN TID INN PLY 71997 09,94 TIIS 17009 ASIN TILT OIITA 779103 7772 a)ryal agent IM} Fela st File Theovy: A Render, sve ovwhaws Led), afr aye Press, 1977, PP >! WRtare 10 “ge ‘AFTERTHOUGHTS ON “VISUAL PLEASURE AND NARRATIVE CINEMA” INSPIRED BY KING VIDOR’S DUEL IN THE SUN (1946)’ Laura Mulvey So many times over the years since my “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ article was published in Screen, [have been asked why I only used the male third person singular ro stand in forthe spectator. At he time, L was interested in the relationship between the image of woman on the screen and the masculinisation’ ‘ofthe spectator postion, regardless ofthe actual sex (or possible deviance) ofany real live movie-goer. In-bult pasterns of pleasure and identification impose :masculintyas’point of view’;a point view whichis also manifest the general use of the masculine third person. However, the persistent question ‘what about ‘the women in the audience?” and my own love of Hollywood melodrama (equally shelved as an issue in ‘Visual Pleasure’) combined to convince me that, however ironically it had been intended originally, the male third person closed off avenues of inquiry that should be followed up. Finally, Duel in the Sun and is heroine's crisis of sexual identity brought both areas together. stil sand by my Visual Pleasure’ argument, bur would now like to pursue the other two lines of thought. Firs (the ‘women inthe audience’ issue), whether the female spectator iscarried along, asitwere by thescruffofthecext, or whether her pleasure can be more deep-rooted and complex. Second the ‘melodeama” iste), hhow the ext and its attendant identifications are affected by a female character ‘occupyingthe centre ofthe narrative arena. So farasthefirstissueisconcemed, it isalways possible thatthe female spectator may find herselfso outofkey with the pleasure on offer, withits'masculinisation’ that the spell of fascination isbroken, From Framccork 15-16-17 summer 1981) pp. 12-15, AFTERTHOUGATS ON "VAAL PLEASURE NO NasnaTiv® CINEMA On the other hand, she may not. She may find herself secrerly, unconsciously almost, enjoying che freedom of action and control over the diegetic world that identification with a hero provides. I is this female spectaror that I want 10 considerhere.So far asthe second issueisconcerned, [wanttolimitthearea under consideration ina similar manner. Rather than discussing melodrama in general, Tam concentrating on films in which a woman central protagonist isshown tobe tunable © achieve a stable sexual identity, torn berween the deep blue sea of passive femininity and the devil of regressive masculinity ‘There is an overlap between the two areas, berween the unacknowledged dilemma faced in the auditorium and the dramatic double bind up there on the screen. Generally itis dangerous toelide these ewo separate worlds. In this case, the emotions of those women accepting ‘masculinisation’ while watching ation ‘movies with a male hero are illuminated by the emotions of a heroine of a melodrama whose resistance to a ‘correc’ feminine position isthe critical issue atstake, Her oscillation, her inability to achieve stable sexual identity, is echoed by the woman spectator's masculine ‘point of view’. Both create a sense ofthe Alifculey of sexual difference in cinema that is missing in the undiffereniaced spectator of Visual Pleasure’. The unstable oscillating difference is thrown into relief by Freud's theory of femininity FREUD AND FesNintTy For Freu, femininity is complicated by the fact that it emerges out ofa crucial petiod of parallel development berween the sexes; period he sees as masculine, ‘ocphallc, for both boys and girl. The rerms he uses to conceive of femininity are the sameas those he has mapped out forthe male, causing certain problems of language and boundaries 1o expression. These problems reflec, very accurately, the actual position of women in patriarchal society (suppressed, for instance, under the generalised male third person singular). One term gives rise 10 a second a its complementary opposite, the male to the female, in that order. Some quotations In females, roo, the striving to be masculine is ego-syntonic at a certain petiod ~ namely inthe phallic phase, before the development of femininity Sets in, Butt then succumbs tothe momentous process of repression, as 80 often has been shown, chat determines the fortunes of a woman's ferininicy." 1 will only emphasise here thar the development of femininity remains exposed to disturbances by the residual phenomena ofthe early masculine period. Regressions to che pre-Oedipus phase very frequently occu in the course of some women’s lives there is a repeated alenation between periods in which femininiey and masculinity gain the upper hand.? ‘We have called the motive force of sexual life ‘the libido’. Sexual life is dominated by the polarity of masculine-feminine; thus the notion suggests 13 eLuna Murer itself of considering the relation of the libido o this antithesis. Ie would not be surprising if it were to turn out thar each sexuality had its own special libido appropriated toi, so that one sort of libido would pursue the aims ‘ofa masculine sexual life and another sort those of a feminine one. But nothing ofthe kind s rue. There i only one libido, which serves both the tmatculine andthe feminine functions. To itself we cannot assign any xs if, following the conventional equation of activity and masculinity, we are inclined to describe it as masculine, we must not forget that it also covers ‘ends with a passive aim, Nevertheless, the juxtaposition ‘feminine libido’ is withoue any justification. Furthermore, i is our impression that more constraint has been applied tothe libido when itis pressed into the service Of the feminine function, and that to speak teleologically ~ Narure takes Jess careful account of its [that function’s} demands than in the case of masculinity. And the reason for this may lie ~ thinking once again {eleologically ~in the fact thatthe accomplishment of the aim of biology thas been entrusted tothe aggressiveness of men and has been made to some ‘extent independent of women’s consent.* (One particular point of interest in the thied passage is Freud’s shift from the use of activelmasculine as metaphor fr the function ofthe libido to an invocation of [Nature and biology that appearsto leave the metaphoric usage behind. There are ‘two problems here: Freud introduces the use of the word masculine 2s Conventional’, apparently simply following an established social-linguistic practice (but which, once again, confirms the masculine ‘point of view) however, secondly, and constituting a greater intellectual stumbling block, the feminine cannot be conceptualised as different, but rather only as opposition (passivity) in an antinomic sense, or as similarity (the phallic phase). Tiss not to suggest that a hidden, as yet undiscovered femininity exists (as is perhaps {implied by Freud's use ofthe word Nature”) bt tharis structural relationship .0 imasculinity under patriarchy cannot be defined or determined within the terms bffered. Ths shifting process, this definition in terms of opposition or similarity, Teaves women also shifting between the metaphoric opposition ‘active’ and ‘passive’. The correct road, femininity, leads to increasing repression of ‘the “tive (the phallic phase’ in Freud's terms). In this sense Hollywood gente films Structured around masculine pleasure, offering an identification withthe active point of view, alow a woman spectator to rediscover that lost aspect of her Fexual identity, the never fully repressed bed-rock of feminine neurosis. [NARRATIVE GRAMMAR AND TRANS-SEX IDENTIFICATION “The ‘convention’ cited by Freud (active/masculine) structures most popular shacratives, whether film, folk-tale or myth (as I argued in ‘Visual Pleasure’) Jrhere his metaphoric usage is acted out literally in the story. Andromeda stays Tied tothe rock, a victim, in danger, until Perseus slays the monster and saves her, Ieasnotmy aim, here, to ebate the rights and wrongs ofthis narrative division of AFTERTHOUGHT ON "VISUAL PLEASURE ANO NARBATWE CINEMA labour or to demand positive heroines, but rather to point out that the “pramnar’ ofthe story places the eeader listener or spectator with the hero. The woman spectator in the cinema can make use of at age-old cultural tradition slapgher ths conentonwhcheasesa anson ef erownsex to nother. In ‘Visual Pleasure’ my argument rook as its axis a desir to identify 9 Seale ee ete ae Convertions surrounding the look. Now, on the contrary, I would rather emphasise the way that popular cinema inherited traditions of story-telling that fre conmon to other forms of folk and mass culture, with attendant fascinations other than those ofthe look. Freud points out that ‘masculinity’ is, atone tage, ego-syntonc for a woman, Leaving aside, for the moment, problems posed by his us of words, his general remacks on stories and day-deeams provide another angle of approach, this time giving a cultural rather than psychoanalytic insight into the dilemma. He ahasies the relaonship beeen he eo andthe narra concep of he Itisthe cue heroic feeling, which one of our best writers has expressed in the inimitable phrase, Nothing can happen to me!'Irseems, however, that ‘through this revealing characteristic of invulnerability we can immediately _scognite Hs Majesty the Ego, the hero of every day-deeam and every sory. [Although a boy might know quite wel that itis most unlikely tha he will go out into the world, make his fortune through prowess or the assistance of helpers, and marry a princes, the stories describe the male fantasy of ambition, reflecting something of an experience and expectation of dominance (the active). For a irl, or the other hand, the cultural and social overlap is more confusing. Freud's argument that a young girl's day-dreams concentrate on the erotic ignores his ‘own position on her early masculinity and the active day-dreams necessarily associated with this phase. Infact, all 0 often, the erotic funetion of the woman isrepresented by the passive, the waiting (Andromeda again), acting above all as 4 formal closure to the narrative structure. Three elements can thus be drawn, together Freud's concept of masculinity” in women, the identification triggered by the logic of a narrative grammar, and the ego's desie co fantasse itself ina certain, active, manner. All three suggest chat, as desire is given cultural materiality in text, for women (from childhood onwards) trans-sex identifica tion isa habit chat very easily becomes second nature. However, this Nature docs not sit easily and shifts restlessly in its borrowed transvestite clothes. ‘THe WESTERN AND OEDIPAL PERSONIFICATIONS Using 4 concept of character function based on V. Propp's Morphology of the Folk-tsle, 1 want ro argue for a chain of links and shifts in narrative partern, showing up the changing function of ‘woman’. The Western (allowing, of course, for a8 many deviations as one cares to enumerate) bears a residual ia is